Dreams

When I was a teenager, I had a dream – to be an airline pilot. This got shattered when I overheard a schoolmate saying that pilots need to have perfect eyesight, without spectacles. I did not qualify.

Then I decided I would become a doctor. On finishing school, I left for India, where my father had asked a cousin to arrange for my further education. He was a professor in a college. He took me to his college, the Natchimuthu Gounder Mahalingam College in Pollachi. When I saw the dusty college grounds, I bid goodbye to my dream. But somehow, I escaped Pollachi and ended up doing engineering in Chennai, at IIT, a dream institution for many, but not for me. I ended up there by accident.

In my final year at IIT, among a group of friends, we had a dream. We would meet up again in 3 years, and go around the world in a Volkswagen van. But soon after graduation, as we all went our separate ways, we got all busy with our careers, families and the rest. The round-the-world-in-a-VW was forgotten. That was that.

Now I have one more dream. I want to retire to a quiet little place. A small house. A little garden, where I would plant all sorts of vegetables and fruits. and live off the fat o' the land. I would have a car, to travel at my leisure. I would indulge in my other passions as well - studying history and religion, and doing some service - visiting and cheering up orphans and old folks.